Review of The Five-Year Engagement (2012) by Fdt44 — 26 Apr 2012

There's no doubting that this 'Engagement' is well-over-due, standing in at about 124 minutes, it tries arduously to remain funny, smart, and slickly-written, but not even its cohesively-paired leads can keep it afloat of the persistent rawness that just won't let it go.

Drowning and ultimately running out of gas from its incessant unevenness, and pacing, 'Engagment' is a few edits away from being several notches above the average rom-com, however, as is, neither the supporting characters' development, nor the much-needed tightening of its improvised sequences are made apparent.

Although Blunt (Violet Barnes) and Seigel's (Tom Solomon) performances will be more than enough to pacify casual followers of the genre--even despite the impressive degree of realism derived from two and the central premise--it's simply not funny enough to rationalize its overlong trip of meandering.

And, while Blunt and Seigel, together, make a great team, they very quickly, lose empathy from audiences, who after, say, 80 minutes, are no longer interested in watching them anymore, or even concerned with what happens next; this too, especially for the casual moviegoer--the intended audience--becomes more of an exercise in patience than an outing of pleasure.

In short, 'Engagement' isn't short enough.